HBO’s “LOVECRAFT COUNTRY” Starts Casting

Last May we told you all about Jordan Peele adapting Matt Ruff’s LOVECRAFT COUNTRY to series for HBO. Writing of the work must be moving along as the series is on to the next step which is casting. To date, three actors have signed onto the gig. Straight from the movie Hostiles, the acclaimed WGN series Underground and the magical Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them comes, respectively, Jonathan Majors, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Wunmi Mosaku to the straight-to-series HBO project.

The story follows Atticus Black as he joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father. Thus begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from an H. P. Lovecraft paperback. He, of course, is the noted “horror fiction” master. Only time will tell then what ghoulish demon lurk in the dark for our trio as they traverse America. And will those horrors be worse than the racism and inequality they discover?

Majors (right) becomes our Atticus Black. He is said to be a Korean War vet who always has a pulp novel in his back pocket, and always wears his heart on his sleeve despite the daily injustice of living in Jim Crow America. Majors was noted as a standout in the ABC miniseries When We Rise and now has the prestige of an HBO series before him.

Straight from the acclaimed WGN series Underground comes Jurnee Smollett-Bell to the straight-to-series HBO project. Besides the role of Rosalee in Underground, you might recognize Smollett- Bell from her stint on TRUE BLOOD. She played Nicole Wright a strong proponent of the Vampires Unity Society, the pro-vampire and shapeshifters support group that a aided the supernatural kind against the persecuting Governor of Louisiana. After helping to undermine that threat she bonds with Sam Merlotte through to the end of the series. Well, this time out she tangles yet again with monsters in the night.

In LOVECRAFT COUNTRY Smollett-Bell (left) plays a gal named Letitia Dandridge. It is said that she hustled her way across the country as an artist protesting for civil rights and now finds herself back home looking to plant some roots.

Mosaku (lower right) will play Rudy Dandridge, a hustler just like her half-sister Leticia, only her hustles haven’t paid off. Her family ties are tested when she’s presented with an offer she can’t refuse. The Nigerian born actress will also have a stint in BBC’s Luther this year.

LOVECRAFT COUNTRY is by Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions with Misha Green (from Underground) as series head writer and executive producer. More news is sure to come including who gets the role of the mentioned Uncle George character. Thus begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from an H. P. Lovecraft paperback. He, of course, is the noted “horror fiction”master. Only time will tell then what ghoulish demons lurk in the dark for our trio as they traverse America. And will those horrors be worse than the racism and inequality they discover?

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